Abstract
A rewarding opportunity for public service has recently emerged—volunteering to utilize your biorisk management knowledge for the benefit of your local or state public health and/or local clinical laboratories. It became clear in 2015 that many clinical laboratories (eg, hospital and public health) laboratories were unprepared for an Ebola case and the subsequent call for infectious disease response programs. In response, public health (PH) laboratories hired biosafety officers (BSOs) as part of Centers for Disease Control—provided funds to state, local, and territorial laboratories via the Domestic Ebola Supplement to Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases. This grant expires in 2018, and its renewal is uncertain—several state PH BSOs have taken other positions due to job uncertainty and low compensation.
What is ABSA’s (ABSA International) PH involvement? ABSA has trained PH BSOs in its Principles and Practices of Biosafety course, preconference courses, and webinars. The Albuquerque Conference saw the first PH Special Interest Group meeting; ABSA has representatives on APHL (Association of Public Health Laboratories) committees and the APHL Biosafety and Biosecurity Partners Forum. Many PH laboratory BSOs have either obtained or are eligible for ABSA professional credentials.
How can ABSA members help? Members have been active by providing clinical lab training, risk assessment guidance, and laboratory inspections; helping develop/revise laboratory standard operating procedures; speaking to schools of PH classes about ABSA programs; assessing outbreak readiness; and so on. I urge you to contact your local/state BSO or hospital clinical laboratory manager and ask them if you can be of service. Also, you can connect them with the local ABSA affiliate in your area; those meetings/symposiums can provide inexpensive networking and training opportunities for a new BSO.
Your rewards? Community service: Volunteer efforts may be eligible for Credentialing Maintenance points by completing the Application for CM Credit. If you are currently working with a PH or clinical laboratory, please consider sharing your experience via a short article/commentary in the ABSA Applied Biosafety Journal.